News About This Theater

The Crown 15 opened in 2002 on the top floor of Minneapolis new Block e entertainment building. It is block E on city maps. During the long years of trying to get a block rebuilt, it just became known as Block E and the name stuck.

Theatres have been part of this block since the 19th century. The Regent Theatre and Garden Theatre were early houses located here, along with the Shubert Theatre. The World Cinema opened in the 1930’s. By the 1980’s the block had become “crime central”. The Regent Theatre and the Garden Theatre were long gone. The World Theatre and Academy(nee Shubert) Theatre sat vacant. Two hole in the wall porno cinemas, however, had opened.

Finally the entire block, except for the Shubert Theatre, was razed. The 1910 Shubert was moved two blocks away allowing for the entire block to be built on.

Like all downtown cinemas, the Crown suffers from a parking problem. It was taken over by Kerasotes Theatre in September 2007 and by AMC Theatres in May 2010. It was closed on September 23, 2012.

According to this article, the theater is defintely going to close in September, 2012, at least partially due to AMC’s unwillingness to upgrade the projection to digital (though it is easy understand why, if the lease is not going to be renewed)
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How true, Tim; well, at least here in the States we have a few cities such as Seattle and Chicago (though mostly on the north side of the river) and a few others that have some truly downtown movie theaters, but it sure is not as it once was. And, even though I love Toronto, I cannot help but remember what Yonge and Bloor Streets used to be in terms of theaters that one could choose.

Ahh, I remember that well as well. I’m hoping with all the condo construction happening around Yonge and Bloor now, someone will open something new in that area again. I know that the Varsity is the only one with 12 screens but I would think that Empire could open something in that area. If only the 10 screen complex at 1 Bloor E could have been built before Cineplex bought Famous Players, then there would be 2 midtown complexes now. But if you count the Varsity’s 12 screens, that’s almost as many screens that used to be in the area prior to Sep 1986

Officially closed. So it looks like the strategy Crown Theatres once had for building these sites failed – – http://www.specialtyretail.net/issues/nov98/CROWN.adding%20gems%20to%20the%20crown.htm (consider the level of underperformers they’ve had including three failed multiplexes – Neonopolis, Block E and Abacore) – – I believe this one closed because they had a deal that essentially allowed them to not pay rent as long as they made under a certain number, no wonder AMC wanted to stick around.

I don’t know if the lease arrangement Crown had at Block E was really typical of their business strategy (though I rather doubt it), but the link to the article I posted on March 18, 2011 describes that particular deal; basically the rent was based on a sliding scale that varied depending on gross receipts. When AMC took over, they wanted a lease extension under the same terms, but the landlord refused. AMC went to court, but lost.

The theater might have well have closed anyway, as the the whole Block E venture as originally conceived has not been successful as a shopping/dining/entertainment destination, and I have heard that a conversion proposal to a casino (we sure don’t have enough of those now, do we?) has been floated.